The 2009 European Parliament Election in Ireland

Abstract

The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the midst of one of the worst national and global recessions since the 1930s and saw the governing parties, Fianna Fáil and the Greens, suffer considerable losses. This report provides a detailed review of the 2009 European elections in Ireland. It begins by outlining two analytical approaches to the election, seeking to tease out where the 2009 election in Ireland fits. It evaluates the political and economic context that the election was fought in showing how the events of the year previous to the election set the tone for its eventual outcome. The report then examines the campaign itself before providing an assessment of some of the factors that determined voters’ behaviour in the election before concluding by looking ahead to what the results may tell us about future elections and voting behaviour in Ireland.

Keywords:

• ‘second‐order’
• European
• elections
• campaign

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Richard Sinnott, Patrick Joyce and Deirdre Tinney for their comments and advice and acknowledges the financial support of the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Science. As ever, all errors are his own.

Notes

1. There are three different means of calculating turnout at an aggregate level: turnout based on the voting‐age population (VAP), the electoral register (ER) and the eligible voting‐age population (EVAP) (see McDonald & Popkin, 2001; O’Malley, 2001; Sinnott & Kavanagh, 2007). This paper uses the ER measure at it is reliably available for both general and European elections.

2. Under European election law, the European election count cannot start until voting throughout the EU is completed. As countries like France and Germany did not hold their elections until Sunday 7 June, the results were not announced in Ireland until then (see Citizens Information Bureau, IE, 2009).

3. Libertas and its affiliates also failed to make much of an impact elsewhere in Europe with the party list winning only one seat Europe wide, that of Phillipe DeVilliers of the ‘Mouvement pour la France’.

4. The exit poll was conducted by Lansdowne Market Research among a sample of 3,342 voters across the four constituencies. The margin of error is +/− 1.7 percent on the national level and +/− 3.4 percent at the constituency level.

5. Respondents were asked: ‘Which of the following was most important to you in deciding how to vote in the European Parliament election today: issues and candidates in this election or the government’s handling of various aspects of the economic crisis?’ (Lansdowne Market Research, 2009: 28).

6. Respondents were asked: ‘Please tell me which one of the following was the main reason why you decided to give your first preference vote to the candidate in the European Parliament elections: personality/qualities, party or policies?’ (Lansdowne Market Research, 2009: 35, 41, 47, 53).